jason, defend bill ackman. why is he good for jcpenney? re's a reason that bold and billionaire begin with the same letter, b. people tend to forget that ackman does have a fairly decent track record to say the least. herbalife notwithstanding. canadian pacific, general growth. the guy's crushed it over the past decade, and obviously, he's gotten himself into hot water with the public, and it's really easy to just jump on the band wagnd and bash ackman, but he's bringing attention to jcpenney. he owns 17% of the company. he wants success of the company and he's doing what he thinks is the best path for that. >> sanjay, you know, there's style and then substance here. people may take issue with the style and the way this has played out in public, but is the substance of bill ackman's argument right? >> bill ackman is asking bill ackman to give situation in this situation is asking the fox to guard the henhouse. he's been influential with this company for sometime and has been responsible for the really bad decisions jcpenney has made -- >> s

bill ackman disrupted a very successful ceo. he has stars in his eyes, ackman, about bringing back allen questrom, who is the exact wrong fit for this job. in the 3 1/2 years he ran jcpenney, the height of it its market value was about $11 billion. under the guy that bill ackman wanted to hustle out of there, mike ullman, he took it up to roughly 20 billion, more than twice, more than twice where allen questrom had it. while allen was very critical of ron johnson, bill ackman's boy himself in ternls of the diskounting policies and stuff, you have to look at what questrom has did. he has impeccable taste, but it's the wrong style for the jcpenney audience. he was basically taking, you know, popular mechanics and trying to make it into architectural digest when he was back at jcpenney before. >> he's not coming in to be the ceo. he's coming in to be chairman of the board. >> he doesn't belong on this board. by the way, allen questrom is no shrinking violet. if he's there in a leadership role, you will have the confusion about who i

i have never met bill ackman. but what i think we all witnessed over the last 24 hours is such a predictable act, something so irresponsible that a board member of an existing public company would release and leak an e-mail without sharing it with the board or the ceo is beyond comprehension. but the story is worse than that. here's the situation, and this is the truth. this is not fiction. bill ackman was the primary engineer and architect of recruiting ron johnson to the company, and he and ron johnson -- strategy that strapped the company and ruined the lives of thousands of jcpenney employees and fractured shareholder value. [ audio difficulty ] -- came back to save the company, worked tirelessly, and given the time and the support from the board, i'm very confident he will do just that. and there's one other thing. bill ackman released an e-mail today that said that mike ullman is not communicating with him or the board. when mike decided to come back, i shared with him verbatim all of the things that i did d

of the board, like steve roth, for example, who many believe got into jc penney as a result of bill ackmanwonder if, you know, has he's not thinking ought his future on the board, what all of that means. i don't know. jeff, i mean, what happens if you've got now more than ackman leaving the board? what happens if you have a guy like roth, who leaves next? >> i think to be clear, rob parted ways with ackman far back. i think he realized before anyone, he went quite public about what a disappointment ron johnson, what ron johnson is a fine human being, quest rom is a fine retailer for someone else, not here. they probably feel they made a mistake here and with toys 'r' us, you know, these brilliant people, richer and smarter than we are, can make some bad mistakes. i'm sure stephen roth wished they hasn't gone into this. >> jeff, let me ask you about bill ackman, he relies in part on the credibility of his reputation to make his case, to get on boards, to pursue proxy contests, to create tha-- owe c change at companies. i can see this cutting both ways, part of me says the board says i don't

>> well, that's a question you have to ask bill ackman. you know? i think clearly we had in the last weeks there was a pretty significant dispute on the board when he was -- obviously failed this -- as a result of this. why he's selling now, i don't know. you know? he clearly given the commentary he made in the recent letter to the investors he's moving beyond. >> is jc penney going to survive? it's a harsh question. it's speculation. is it going to survive? >> well, with -- >> okay. we seem to be having technical problems with the sound of brian. i don't know whether we can get him back but seems like the technical issue is causing some disruptions so i do apologize. we'll try to talk to him later. >>> who's the next ceo to go? coming up next, in the wake of microsoft shares climbing from steve balmer's resignation on friday, what would happen if the ge ceo would leave? >> he would come up to my office, tell me terrible things about obama, tell me terrible things of governor cuomo will ch will come out ultimately in the lawsuit. >> donald trump rag

activist investor bill ackman resigning from the board of directors. i spoke with former ceo allen questrom just a few moments ago who told me that mr. ackman has done the right thing. he also put his support behind the gentleman who was named to the board who was a former vice chairman of fed rated. so this story has new developments. with the recent setback for bill ackman's in sony's rebuke of dan loeb. >> scott, thanks so much. bill ackman, of course, is once again ruffling feathers in the corporate world, this time leaving to his departure from the board of jcpenney. a company in which he's the largest shoulder and would ostensibly like to have a continuing leadership role. public tussles with companies like that raise questions with whether activism can go too far. despite the public nature of his endeavors, some great win stories, some great losing stories as well. ackman is more the exception than the rule. for one thing, there's his outspokenness. other activists, dan loeb, for example, rely mostly on written communications with companies. you

liz: bill ackman. >> we should point out that i've had some contact with bill ackman.t. >> he really believes there's, i think there is some case about a stock manipulation. liz: carl called that absurdity. >> i'm just saying that. when you are, he doesn't have to be involved in this but if you are soros, i'm not saying this is stock manipulation but look as little weird. you are soros. sorrow's fund. it wasn't george soros himself. a guy named paul sohn. you hold an idea meeting with other investors. liz: carl said ackman did the same thing, 300 people. shorting. >> 300 people, he did put out a press release with all that. if you're doing that privately, there are rules about that. and you know, you're actually going to, five or six people saying we're thinking of taking a long position. they have a chance to trade on that stock. it's an interesting dynamic. i do know we reported earlier today on the fox business network that the sec is kicking the tires around on that. so it's interesting. listen, i know it was fascinating interview. anytime you have someone like him

bill ackman's next big call. he wants jc penney's chairman of the board of the out and wants to replace the ceo i guess. really turning up the heat in that ceo search. scott wapner has been all over this one, and he'll join us in a minute. >>> terrible flooding out in the middle west. this is a ferrari. what a terrible waste, ladies and gentlemen. a ferrari is a terrible thing to waste. unfortunately, though, the damage goes far beyond that car, and that is just ahead. the rains have been coming down there. meantime, to sue at the nyse. >> thank you very much, ty. well, ty showed you the dow. this week has been a rough week for the bulls. right now the dow is down 89 parents, but it was down better than 150 at one point in the trading session, and we've had a significant percentage loss on the dow. right now the s&p and the nasdaq both fighting against the bulls in today's trading session. the s&p is down about a quarter of a percent and the nasdaq is down just a fraction. looks like it's trying to tick positive.

cnbc and our scott wapner here with me now, just doing some reporting just then, reporting that bill ackman, the investor, has filed a complaint with the s.e.c. after george soros joined carl icahn in buying up a big chunk of herbalife. you'll recall probably that ackman has been shorting the stock saying that the company is nothing more than basically a pyramid scheme. that short position is a big reason why, by the way, ackman's percenting square capital lost during that time. if you're short, you don't like to see that kind of a business. with us also nathan vardy with "forbes." welcome to "power lunch." what do we know about this complaint of ackman's and whether people are ganging up on him? >> we know that bill acshan and pershing square have formally asked the s.e.c. to take a look into the soros investment to see if it violated insider trading laws. the way that the investment was made, who was spoken to, whether there was a conversation with a large number of hedge funds before the investment was made. mr. ackman clearly wants to know how all of this went down. again, when we broke

it seems carl icahn couldn't let bill ackman be the most talked-about activist this week. in the last hour, the 77-year-old billionaire tweeting that he has taken a large position in apple and that he told ceo tim cook he wants a big share buyback now. and would you look at apple's stock? take a look at what it's doing right now. it's up nearly 5%. of course, it already has a big buyback and the thought of it being bigger is something the investors like. >> arguably the most successful of all of the activist investors going after one of the largest companies in the world and pushing it up 4%. even apple responded. they said that, quote, we appreciate the interest and investment of all of our shareholders. tim had a very positive conversation with mr. icahn today. i tweeted out a little while ago that the translation of that is, simply, "gulp." >> and to think this was one time a target of shorts. you had david einhorn in there last year. >> exactly. >> shorting the stock. and now to think carl icahn is calling it undervalued. certainly one to watch today. >> much more comi

a couple letters from bill ackman to the board. there's been a response from the board and official statement from the current chairman of the board who says if mr. ackman's statements in the letters that we've seen criticizing a number of issues with the board, the board saying that mr. ackman's statements are misleading, inaccurate and counterproductive. i spoke with bill ackman a short time ago who said our letter is entirely accurate in all respects. we look forward to meeting with the full board to discuss the future of this company. what you have right now is a mess. it is a full fledged mess. >> is there a school of thought that maybe ackman is meddling too much? pushing for the changes fast and wanting things done fast is what got ron johnson into a lot of trouble in the first place. >> i think at this point it's a case of desperate times call for desperate measures. he's sat there and watched the value of jc penney's stock price go down clearly from the letters today, you have had a situation where behind the scenes bill a

canadian pacific, big winner for bill ackman., general growth properties, big winner. >> proctor and gamble too. >> and proctor and gamble as well. >> i'm glad you brought that up. that is important to bring that up. thanks, guys. we will keep watching. >>> up next, ceo of aig, robert benmosche. a lot more, company resuming the dividend and announcing a buy back. we'll get into it. then two regional bank names you may want to add to your portfolio. a top banking analyst makes his case. back in a moment. mber? scottrade. ron: i'm never alone with scottrade. i can always call or stop by my local office. they're nearby and ready to help. so when i have questions, i can talk to someone who knows exactly how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me. that's why i'm with scottrade. announcer: scottrade- proud to be ranked "best overall client experience." >>> welcome back. aig releasing second quarter earnings p.m. take a look, stock traysing as can you see at, trading higher in the extended hours at better than 5%

penney said bill ackman's latest actions are disruptive and counterproductive in an important state of recovery and leading a campaign to a point ron johnson under whose leadership performance deteriorated precipitously. now the board is going after ackman, the largest shareholder. the new ceo was the older ceo. the former ceo may or may not come back. all of which is happening two a stock that had problems with suppliers and we're four months ahead of the holiday situation. >> i wonder about the supplier's story. when that came out, that made the stock drop 12%. the company came out and said there is absolutely no truth to that, the stock popped back. there is a lot of people pushing to try to manipulate that stock. >> here's my question. if are you the board of a company supposed to be beholden or at least consider the shareholders and your largest shareholder is somebody that you dislike immensely and you don't agree with what they've done or what they are doing, do you actually listen to them or not? >> the biggest shareholder is screaming saying you need to do x, y, z, when x, y,

bill ackman is out. the activist investor is leaving the board of j-c penney. the stock initially spiked then --closed down 3%. in a statement, ackman says : "i believe that the addition of two new directors and my stepping down from the board is the most constructive way forward for j.c. penney and all other parties involved." it follows ackman's string of public criticism regarding jcpenney, including calling for its chairman to leave the board.sapna ma-hesh-wari, a reporter for buzzfeed business says her sources predict ackman's departure may stabilize the stock. "when bill ackman decided to take matters into his own hands, release this letter, two letters... to the media, go behind the board's back, it was this external force that really moved the stock one way or the other, and when you take away the risk of that, this analyst says maybe it could be a more stable investment." ma-hesh-wari adds investors will be watching closely for progress. the company reports earnings next tuesday. investors could get a better look at the books of publicly- traded compani

bill ackman released an e-mail today that said that mike ullman is not communicating with him or the board. when mike decided to come back, i shared with him verbatim all of the things that i did during the transformation of starbucks, and he has used many of those communication tactics, including e-mails and communicating to the board weekly as well as the employees. so this is a tragic example of an irresponsible, despicable act. and it's not -- it's not about mike ullman for me. it's about financial engineering -- for their own benefit, and as a result of that, fracture the goodwill, shareholder value, and the lives of hard-working people. this is a tragic situation, and i just felt i couldn't sit by and watch it when i know mike ullman is a world-class ceo and a fantastic leader. >> yeah. you make a good point, howard. particularly, you know this sort of timeline and story line well. you also left starbucks, came back to starbucks, and then

funds manager bill ackman selling his stake to jc penney.as j.c. penney reached the point of consolidate or die? our next host has thoughts on this marcus is here from "the profit." what time is the "profit on"? . >> 10:00 eastern. i want to be clear, it's my money. it's my money. >> it's not cnbc money. >> it's not your money, it's not the network's money. it will be joe's money next season. >> i thought those court shows like divorce court, i thought the behind the scenes, each side got paid by the producer. >> i don't get paid. if you can help me renegotiate my deal. >> you are now a reality tv star. what are you doing? >> i do it for free. over time as the deals get bigger, i may, at this point. >> how is your wallet looking after this? >> a little thinner, car cash, which will be a great one, i'll make good money on t. last episode of the season, my favorite, i plan on making some real money. >> what a tease. >> i'm not going to tell you what it is there the first one. >> car cash. >> you were going to make enough on that to cover the o

bill ackman calling for the replacement of the retailer's chairman and calling for a new ceo.he board struck back one of the largest shareholders, perry capital through its support of ackman and howard schultz took the other side on cnbc and scolded the hedge fund manager. how will this play out, and can the company survive? let's get in the money right now and any way you slice it it's an extraordinary story being aired on tv in the media, in the public spotlight for all to see. >> and it's not a good thing, not good for the shareholders who are not big hedge fund titans. yesterday with the news they put a time frame on it. should have a new ceo in 30 to 45 days. that's also not good. if you get close to that time line, and there's no real names bandied about. that's a problem for investors. the stock can continue to sink. we've seen what's going on in the credit markets, not good. i mean, the story is becoming very distressed kind of quickly, and you don't really want to be an individual investor trying to get in the middle of these big guys. >> anything that ackman is invol

so bill ackman wants a board meeting soons as soon as possible.of the board. other item, bill ackman saying in the letter, i'm concerned a small subset of the board is negotiating and speaking on behalf of the full board and that the rest of the board has not been properly informed and is not been given an opportunity to express its views. i think it's also clear from this letter that bill ackman has taken issue with some of the executive moves that have been made in the last several weeks and months. there was a new marketing person who was recently hired, a whom hofs at kraft who had no retail experience. bill ackman says of that, imagine my surprise when i learned of ms. berman's hiring from a press release. so he has been somewhat out of the loop, as he points out, as chairman of the finance committee on the board of directors that he didn't even know that they were hiring a new marketing person, that a small segment of the board has been operating on its own and hasn't given the full board an opportunity to weigh in on any of these decisions.

in this case, we have a historic breach of duty of loyalty where bill ackman as independent or outside investor can say whatever but as a bored member he has to represent a bored and attacking the bored like this is a break down in the trust on the board and of course, putting out confidential strategic information is a no, no and the bored should remove. 16% is not controlling interest. >> it comes, with the new ceo being on the job for four months and turning around a company that's been troubled for sometime. it doesn't -- regardless of whether it's politically correct or not, they haven't given this gentleman much time. >> no, they haven't given mike much time. he was responsible for a stock price four times the present stock price, and mike was pushed out. the guy that took the stock up four times where it was today was pushed out by none other than bill who had another candidate and gave overly rosy portrait to. he wrongly contributed to the success of the apple stores and made a mess of things. of course, the stocks plummeted and they lost a third of the retail sales, massive la

. >>> plus, from jcpenney to herbalife, it's been more than a rough week for bill ackman, but just how many names now are jumping on the anti-ackman bandwagon and why? we'll take a closer look at the list and what it all means later on when we come back. free rese, customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed 1-second trades. and at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price -- just $7.95. in fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and etrade. i'm monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. now get 200 free trades when you open an account. >>> welcome back to the halftime report. i'm josh lipton. we are watching those insurance stocks. many of these names trading at new 52-week highs. metlife which just reported after the bell yesterday operating earnings besting estimates. financi aflac, which reported this week, beat on the bottom and the top. now up nearly 20% in 2013. scott, back to you. >> josh, thanks so much. stephanie link, what's the

activist investor bill ackman sent the second public letter in two days calls for the ouster of tom and a search for a ceo. the letter charged personal decisions were made inappropriately and him and bored members were frozen out and vendors said they were worry that penny was being too optimistic in buying inventory. they called the comments quote misleading, inaccurate and counterproductive. whatever, it's what you rarely see in american business but more of in recent weeks and here to discuss what happens when companies fight among themselves or each other is yale school of management dean jeffrey. great to see you again. >> it's great to see you. >> whenever i see this kind of open bored room welfaar war fai out is it good for shareholders, or should i run the heck away? >> it's not good for shareholders. you see a fleeting pop yesterday, tyler thanks quickly disappeared because people thought well maybe there is some pending news that will be good news about some major announcement of a change coming, but now, when you have this disillusion we saw it at the old, old, hp bored where

bill ackman's certainly not having a great year all the way around, here.i certainly think that even given the news today or another shake-up, the stock probably has nowhere to go but kind of trembling down from here. so, i would avoid it, certainly, unless you're really speculative and playing for a very short-term kind of move. - tim, thank you for your thoughts today. have a great friday. - you bet. thank you, angie. coming up next week, chicken run: backyard farming is gaining popularity, but the explosion of chickens is showing up in animal shelters. is it a money-saving venture or "fowl" play? that's it for this week. from all of us at first business, thank you for watching. enjoy your friday! >> announcer: the following is a paid advertisement for the magic bullet, brought to you by homeland housewares. [birds chirping] [children laughing] >> woman: time for dinner! >> announcer: homeland housewares. >> women: ♪ we make life easy at home ♪ >> announcer: special television offer from homeland housewares. stay tuned to find out how you can get the orig

. >> what happened to the dynamic of bill ackman? the trade at this point. >> i don't think he has enough time. the only thing time is allowing for more enemies to line up against him and that's what he's doing. he's getting kind of cornered now. >> it's funny. interesting argument. to me, at some point, the guy put his thesis out there, he's risked capital, done his work and i don't remember a time where everybody is so right all the time where they get in there. there are some events that could take this thing down quickly, so to me, it's been a one way street for now. >> but the humorous with which he made this announcement was incredible and it was like being in a pit used to be. if everybody knew what your position was, they were going to test you and bill ackman is being tested and it's not working out for him. >> and does he feel the test all right? up next, the final call from the pits. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ [ indistinct shouting ] [ male announcer ] time and sales data. split-second stats. [ indistinct shouting ] ♪ it's

i, bill ackman, think it's important.y the whole system would fall apart. my point is, if are you against it, if you are against something going on, take your action as a shareholder. you can have a proxy contest. that itself way the system works. if you are on the board, live by the norms of being a board member. every board member that's linsing to this show knows about it. >> what happens to throw one thing out, what happens if there are things happening in there that had gotten so bad, that, i don't know, hiring and fireing decision were being made without fully informing people i don't know, makes. maybe things got so bad. >> people disagree, they don't air it out in letters him they don't go on tv. the information is confidential. everybody agrees so that when they become a board member. my point is, otherwise, don't be a board member. >> yeah, i guess, maybe that's the way he could have done it differently, if you are going to go hostile like this, drop your board positions, go out tonight. >> sure. >> here's the q

bill ackman calling for the replacement of the chairman and his call for a new ceo. the board struck back. one of the largest shareholders threw its support behind ackman. moments ago, howard schultz scolded the hedge fund manager. can the company survive. let's get in the mope right now. any way you slice it, a story aired on tv, in the media, in the public spotlight for all to see. >> it's not a good thing. when you think about it, yesterday with the news, they put a time frame on it. they should have a new ceo in 30 to 45 days. that's also not good. if you get close to that timeline, and there's no real names bantied about, that's going to be a problem for investors. the stock would continue to sink. we've seen what's going on in the credit market. not good. the story is becoming very distressed kind of quickly. you don't really want to be an individual investor trying to get in the middle of these big guys. >> is there anything ackman that is involved in right now that isn't playing itself out in a very ugly way in the media? every story is a bad one. but for him

we begin this evening with corporate intrigue, the story of bill ackman and the fight for control of j.c. penny. .>> we collectively decided on ron johnson as the c.e.o. of the business. we put him in place. i'm not the c.e.o. of j.c. penny. i haven't made day-to-day decisions in the company. my job is to make decisions about hiergs and firing c.e.o. and long-term strategic direction of the business. the media, because we are probably the highest visibility person on the board, when j.c. penny was-- you know, when the stock went two 20 to 42 on ron being hired, we got too much credit for that. while i actually helped the company recruit ron johnson, it was really the collective decision of the board to bring him on, when when the business failed i probably got too much of the blame for recruiting ron. but that's okay. that's the risk of my business. >> rose: we conclude this evening with golf and the story of jason dufner who won the p.g.a. championship this past weekend. >> people don't realize it's the best in the world, it's the best of the best. it's not the best in your region o

the question now is whether the board will take action against one of their own and that's bill ackmand to adam shapiro on the floor of the new york stock exchange. >> it's a great question because ackman is one who leaked letter that got this whole controversy going. let's show you numbers first. numbers don't lie. this is what investors said about jcpenney today. they like what is happening at least for now. the stock went up 2.3%. a little higher than we were on friday. here's the problem, you have analysts like gilford securities even though ackman is largest shareholder he need to go. he put out a note, destructive force, propagate tore of unsound ideas and shouldn't be involved. what we see in the store, corrective actions are improving. customers are buying on key stopping dates. key inventories is improved. stability is returning. credit ullman for that. ullman is the not doing what act man wants. it might be better that way. howard schultz, friend of ullman he sides over the weekend, if i was sitting on that board, jcpenney i would ask for bill ackman's removal val. cue homer

>> the average 16-year-old doesn't know who bill ackman is, that's for sure. what these things do is a side effect, is they cause a distraction for retailers and focusing on multichannel market approaches. you have to be connected through web, social, mobile, and brick-and-mortar, if you want to connect with the consumer and capture brand loyalty. rather than focus on this back-to-school season, as we look for years and years beyond, retailers that don't cap it now won't be as successful as others. >> and let's talk about the pricing. it was a cold spring. as a result, some stores have excess summer inventory. will prices come down, will we see deeper discounting? >> we are seeing a trend with longer discount periods. we created an event back-to-school saturday, it was broadly successful. the short-term programs are great. the long-term discounting is more of a struggle for the retailers. >> you said earlier you think we are going to see a better next couple of weeks going into the school season. >> yeah. >> what are you expecting? >> consumers are cautious no

. >> now, is there a more hated man on wall street than bill ackman? the folks at j.c.enny are so angry with him, they're trying to oust him from the board. but wait, they might make peace at any moment. we have the latest. there's meetings going on right now. we have been waiting for hours to see if they're going to settle their differences. we have court any rney reagan n. "stubborn love" by the lumineers did you get my email? i did. so what did you think of the house? did you see the school ratings? oh, you're right. hey babe, i got to go. bye daddy! have a good day at school, ok? ...but what about when my parents visit? ok. i just love this one... and it's next to a park. i love it. i love it too. here's our new house... daddy! you're not just looking for a house. you're looking for a place for your life to happen. they're the days to take care of business.. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solution

bill ackman and carl icahn have something else to fight about. has granted a license to operate in the hunan province. they're in the green today by about 1.1%. the notorious pink panthers allegedly striking once again just two weeks ago in fact in france. andrea day has more with that story. >> they have kept investigators on their toes for years. the latest hit allegedly tied to the gang of thieves is the biggest heist in france's history. take a look incredible robberies, untouchable thieves. bags of diamonds gone in seconds. the notorious pink panthers, suspected of pulling off some of the most brazen diamond heists in industry. in dubai, driving cars straight through a jewelry store wind. in london storming a mall on motorcycles, and more than 100 million stolen in just the past month. fbi special agent dan mccaffery is a diamond specialist. he tracks panther heists around the world. >> it's the allure of the great diamond, and making your millions in one heist. >>> along the french riviera, a wild heist that left police stunned. a lone stro

equities at bank of america and merrill lynch. >>> and also, today, bill ackman is resigning from theard and does not plan to sell his shares. andrew sor kin has more, and great to see you out here "squawk on the street." you spoke with bill this morning? >> yes, it is not that he wants to sell the shares, and he may at some point, but currently right now sh, he can't sell the shares. so even though he is off of the board, because he has inside information about the strategy of the company as any other board member would, there is a period of time and perhaps several months or perhaps longer in which he can legally not share the shares, because potentially he would have numbers that others would not and if they change strategy after christmas when the new numbers come in obviously about how well the strategy worked, and tings this that he would not know at that point, perhaps you could sell his shares and worth note tag he bought the shares and basis is $25/share and right now those are trading in $13 range, so that tin sensitive he sell may not be there either. >> and ackman, and i k

pening and pershing shares bill ackman may resolve their differences tonight so far, we aren't seeingemember scott walker coming on saying glenview has not taken a side with ackman or j.c. penney in this boardroom brawl that continues to unfold here. there are headlines crossing that bill ackman and j.c. penney could be resolving their differences. we could hear from them by sometime tonight, melissa. >> thank you very much. let's go straight to brian, broadly, j.c. penney, we have this breaking news, so they're in talks reportedly to resolve this dispute. does that limit the possible gain from shorting the stock? in other words, does that put a floor underneath the stock at this point if they are able to maintain their differences within the boardroom? >> you would think so. what will happen, they will have a liquidity run. what i expect is a horrendous quarter. a lot of concern about their cash burn rate. so this may soothe the headline, the fundament also are absolutely horrific. you have to worry about that. >> you say it's still short? >> we have a $12 price target. i will ride t

>> the board cannot kick bill ackman off. what they would have to do is call a special meeting of hair holders. in order to do that before the annual meeting of shareholders which isn't until may 14, they need 6 out of 11 board of directors to do it. right now it seems like the favor is against ackman. you need the majority of board members to call a special meeting. i don't know that it's going to happen. i'm not sure that's what jc penney needs right now. he's life-threatening to get it off? if he's trying to agitate for changes and these changes are unpopular, is he going to get the way? >> i think the interesting thing perry capital, another hedge fund last week, report that had they also have a stake so ackman actually has a little bit of help on his side but you're right. it's a total mess and i think the longer they fight it out the harder it is going to be find a number. >> is this going to happen while the infighting is going on? >> they have another earnings report. in a few weeks they have the martha stewart case t

cnbc reporting that bill ackman's pershing square lost 2.2% in july. course, has a short position on herbalife, now up some 100% this year. kelly, back to you. >> all right, josh. and on that note, the herbalife saga continues. now pershing square's ackman is getting the s.e.c. involved. he has filed a complaint with regulators after george soros made a big investment in herbalife, news that scott first reported here on cnbc. >> kelly, the petition addresses concerns that soros is in violation of some insider trading rules by alerting other hedge funds at an ideas meeting about his big bet on the nutritional supplement maker. joining us now is former s.e.c. chairman harvey pitt. mr. pitt, welcome. >> good to be with you. >> what do you think about mr. ackman's claim here? >> well, i think this is -- seems to be like a desperation move and the kettle calling the pot black. when mr. ackman went short, he had a huge public announcement and urged people that the stock was way overvalued. now, there are people buying the stock, and it's cutting into his pro

guys, can jc penney do anything to muzzle bill ackman? they seem to want to. unhappy he's taken the case to the press, but, gosh, that's fun. ? >> if i was on the board i would certainly respect the confidentiality of the board. i think there owes an obligation to do that but this is the new breed of activist investor. you know what the problem, is dan loeb released a letter to the yahoo! board will getting a new person in and they brought in marisa mayer and here ackman does not have a hit on his hands and that's have there's a lot of griping going on. >> john? >> if you asked a waiter what you should order and you got that recommendation and threw up that night and went back to the restaurant and that was a disaster, would you go to ask the waiter a third time. you would maybe go to a different restaurant. i think people are fed up with ackman. he's a brilliant guy who has done some brilliant things but jc board and investors has a right to be skeptical. >> u.s. authorities investigating deutsche boerse and high frequency trading. >> this is arguably not a n

and the author of a 2011 profile on bill ackman.ll with me is abigail doolittle. >> i didn't. >> i like it, i like it. >> this is toned down, actually. >> you did a profile of bill ackman. one thing that struck me success when he was playing tennis with his daughter. i thought it was very insightful into how competitive he is. please retell the audience that story. >> right. so when i was reporting on the profile, bill took me out to randall's island here in the city where he was -- had a two-hour tennis match with two of his traders. meanwhile, his daughter, she was taking lessons. and at the very end, well first off, bill was complaining about being a little rusty. he had been on vacation, so don't hold any of the plays against him even though he certainly seemed to dominate the match. >> against his traders. >> he's often talked about helping warm up andre agassi. so his daughter comes over. she's across the court from him. every ball goes whizzing right at her. probably because she was the easiest mark on the court. but also i'd

this morning activist investor bill ackman resigned from jc penney's board. he, of course, had been calling for the chairman to quit and wanted to accelerate a search for a new ceo. ackman says that his departure is a win for him as he was able to elevate the conversation at jc penney and make an impact. marcus lemonis is the president of camping world and stacy which had litz a cn-- widlitz and her greenberg is here. he's calling it a win walking off the battlefield declaring victory here. i made the case last week that maybe what ackman was doing is precisely what jc penney needed. they needed a disrupter. he was loud. he was brash. he was impolite. did he do the right thing, herb? >> it could be argued whether his methods were correct but i think a lot of companies need disrupters, whether someone like marcus who will come in, big company, a lot of people don't want to see someone come in and disrupt their plans, but that's what activists do. can you argue they are healthy for the market, and in many cases as kate kelly pointed out in a study that she point

and the other corner, bill ackman.oming head-to-head with the largest shareholder, all the word on wall street. it was a juicy details, give us the update. it is ming down to who says what, he sent a letter to jcpenney last weeand a chairman kind of fired back, we will put these people in the leadership position. weigh in. >> the board is supposed to be there on behalf of the shareholders. 18% for the stock, and the company for an activist sharolder mounting for a long time now. he has ridden it up and mostly down because he had the firing of the current ceo and bring in johnson, which is a disaster. the peak hit after johnson was brought in. the company has done very, very poorly. lori: as an advocate, he is supposed to raise flags, if you will, and challenge decisions and put the company's best interest because you have to believe his feeling on the future strategy for jcpenney is the right direction. >> there was a gigantic flop. he brought in johnson and it was a disaster. a large shareholder, 7%, between them at a

very doesn't miss recording real housewives, atlanta and new york, those are the bess oneses. >>> bill ackmaning headlines again today, pulling all his holdings out of ailing retailer jcpenney, ackman loss more than $500 million on the trade and dragging the stock down with him. it didn't exactly help shareholders which is, by the way, what activist investor shareholders are supposed to be doing. should you know if you're foowing the power of their money or not? we thanks to both of you for joining us. spencer, let me start with you. people try to pile on these activist investors and think that, you know, come hello or high water they will find a way to make money. they have done it. they're billionaires. if you followed ackman into jcpenney you lost 63%. if you followed dan lobe into sony you lost 8%. icahn into dell, you still lost money, about 2%, but a loss is a loss. what do you think about that? >> i really don't get the theory of following an activist investor because a lost what happens you end upcoming in long after the activist investor already establish ad position, usually from a

you want to bet with the short sellers like bill ackman.a bull market, you want to bet with the concept guys. cold stocks and once again, if you bought netflix and tesla, if you like the car, you like the product, i understand why you're buying it. these are two incredible winners in 2013. they remain popular favorites with the crowd you have to go with when the crowd has you and the tape is your friend. i know facebook today pulled back. remarkable non-stop move from the $26 level where it last reported my larger position and my charitable trust. the stock is due for a fall. thank heavens i'm back to even crowd rang the register, but you know what's gotten hot again? apple has been quietly moving up. stock oes cheap and you get a big move in the president decides this weekend to lift a ban against apple, one that samsung positioned for, that would block it from selling the popular apple 4 to at&t. samsung won a trade suit. but if obama overturns the block, which he is allowed to do, i think you can get another leg up in the former market d

forget seacrest, ackman out, three years after setting out to turn around jcpenney, bill does his own about faith after failing to oust the retailers' interim ceo. we'll look at what the defeat means for jcpenney and investors. retail wars. who has the edge when it comes to making a buck? the low end or high end retailers? we'll debate it for you and tell you which retailers are killing it. "countdown to the closing bell" begins right now. ♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody, i'm liz claman, the last hour of trading, breaking news right now. we told you it would happen, and we told you it would happen here on "countdown to the closing bell," billionaire investor, carl icahn, announcing the next big investment, did it on twitter like we said he would moments ago. he said, "we currently have a large position in apple," confirming the tweet to me minutes ago. i just got off the phone with carl who told me on the phone we're there. we think it's extremely undervalued, and we think a bigger buyback is a real opportunity here. again, he told me right on the phone, minutes ago, we are there. he

. >> we have breaking news, bill ackman is resigning from the board of jcpenny. >> i'm still look forshows us smaller than expected deficit and increases gdp as a result of that. i'm not seeing the benefits of the lower deficit. >> you're right, we need to advocate to shoot for $25 trillion to see how many more great benefits we can extol on the economy. >> breaking news regarding the plans of a and r and u.s. air to merge. of course that was a delicately negotiated deal that took time to bring together. now it appears it's going to be facing a new hurdle, from the u.s. justice department. >> how sick are you of seeing these pictures? >> yeah, you know, it's been okay. you know, it's amazing with social media these days how fast things can get away. that was the number one trending thing on twitter for a couple days, actually. i'm fine with people sending me stuff. it's weird when you get into their pets. >> check out the chart of apple here, and you will see a nice pop. carl icahn on twitter making news. here's what he to say, we currently have a large position, apple, we believe the